Fircroft College

This course gives you a broad introduction to basic fundraising techniques, concentrating on identifying the different sources of funds and how best to go about accessing them. It also reviews the current funding options available to small voluntary organisations and the process of bid development and writing a good funding application/proposal.

Specifically designed for the Voluntary and Community Sector, this course gives you new skills and enables your organisation to introduce in-house training. This is a two-part course leading to Open College Network accreditation at Levels 2 & 3. Part 1 looks at what makes a good trainer and how adults learn. Part 2 focuses on delivering training with a strong emphasis on practical exercises, followed by review and individual support from Fircroft’s own tutors.

This hands-on practical course looks at the skills and knowledge needed to prepare good minutes. It looks at the context and legal aspects of minute taking, as well as the planning and preparation needed before a meeting. It identifies techniques for note taking, summarising discussions, recording key points and the final write up of minutes. As part of the course some writing will be undertaken in order to practise minute and note-taking skills.

We concentrate on de-mystifying accounting jargon and techniques by helping you to understand such tasks as: preparing simple budgets and management accounts, use of cash-flow forecasts and reports and interpreting annual accounts. Suitable for workers and committee members with some financial responsibility within an organisation, who may lack experience or confidence. There will be some use made of spreadsheets on this course. If you want to learn to use these more extensively then consider our course Understanding Spreadsheets.

“The human brain starts the moment you are born and stops the moment you stand up in public!” This two-part course equips you with the skills to stand up and deliver presentations confidently using a range of media, including PowerPoint. Starting time for both parts is 3pm. The course is suitable for learners who need to use presentation skills at work. Part 2 requires learners to already have good IT skills.

Do you find it hard to get your ideas down on paper? Have you been asked to prepare a report or formal document and struggled? This course will help you structure your ideas and content, find the right language and tone and help you avoid the mistakes in spelling and punctuation which other people pick up on.

This course focuses on the process of establishing simple bookkeeping systems as well as looking at some of the key underpinning principles of such systems; including the use of coding in systems, the difference between single-entry and double-entry bookkeeping and the use of control mechanisms such as bank reconciliations to ensure accuracy of entries.

This course helps you understand and apply key concepts such as mission, vision and aims, with an in-depth analysis and review of the strategic planning/management process and its application to your organisation. You will have an opportunity to review your organisation’s current approach to strategic planning and identify any areas for development and improvement.

This course helps you understand the business planning process and examines how a business plan can help your organisation express and achieve its goals. The course will look at the business planning cycle and when it is necessary to write a plan, or update an existing one. You also have the opportunity to prepare a simple outline plan for your organisation during the course.